By way of background, in many image formation systems, one or more image forming members are engaged with an intermediate image carrying member. A substrate is brought into operative contact with the intermediate member in order to receive the image. Non-uniformity in the image formation is created when a disturbance in the velocity profile of the image forming member is encountered. This disturbance is generally caused by the lead and trail edges of the substrate entering/leaving operative contact with the intermediate member
More particularly, in tandem color xerographic printers, color separations are built up on an intermediate belt (ITB) at four or more first transfer nips and then transferred onto a media sheet at the second transfer nip. In order to achieve high transfer efficiency, the sheet is brought into intimate contact with the ITB as it passes through a second transfer nip. This nip is formed by a backing bias transfer roll or belt pressing the sheet against the belt, which is supported by a back-up roll. An electric field within the nip is used to move toner from the belt to the media. As the media lead edge enters this nip, a torque disturbance is imposed on the ITB drive system as the sheet pries the nip open. As the sheet trail edge exits this nip, another torque disturbance occurs. These torque disturbances then excite rotational resonance of the ITB drive system, which leads to transient velocity variation of the belt surface. The photoreceptor surface velocity is typically set to match or slightly deviate from the belt nominal speed. When the belt is vibrating, the relative velocity between the intermediate belt and one or more photoreceptors can switch signs, which induces a rotational vibration of the photoreceptors. This vibration causes exposure intensity variations at the imaging location for the photoreceptor, which can result in visible banding on prints.
Accordingly, a method and system for avoiding banding artifacts caused by media handling disturbances at the second transfer is needed.